Cuisine: Russian / Ukrainian
Address: 32 Maxwell Rd, #01-05 Maxwell Chambers, Singapore 069115
Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar (East-West line)
Open daily from 12:00pm to 10:00pm

Fusion Dumplings is owned by a Ukrainian couple offering comforting, well, ‘Ang Moh’ dumplings in the Central Business District. With a variety of dumplings generously stuffed with fillings like beef, mutton and cottage cheese or potato and mushroom for veggie lovers, you’re bound to come back for more servings.

It is the only authentic Russian restaurant in Singapore because the previous one had closed down. While Russian cuisine is not exactly popular around the world, but having a Russian restaurant here actually gives locals an additional choice to cuisines to try from. Craving some hearty soup on a cool or rainy day? Tuck into their classic Borsh made with tomato and cabbage, or try their Okroshka- a cold soup filled with boiled potatoes, eggs, meat and vegetables.

Having visited Russia in 2015, I was excited to try this restaurant to see how the food tastes. It is a small restaurant located near Tanjong Pagar, with around 10 tables in an L-shape corridor. The layout of the restaurant reminds me of the Soviet style canteen “stalovaya” (offering food at reasonable prices across the country) that I have eaten around Russia.

For drinks, I had the Russian fruit compote ($3). It is a thick, sweet fruit drink that makes an excellent dessert or starter. This wasn’t too sweet and as my Russian tutor explained, it is made from berries which gives me a slight tangy taste.

A typical Russian meal would include “pelmeni” which is like dumplings. We had the Siberian pelmeni (beef & pork $10.50) which tasted so good. There was sour cream as a dip and the pelmeni contained generous portions of meat wrapped inside the tiny piece of dumpling. Another friend had the Asian fusion dumplings – Oriental 8ights made of chicken and shrimp ($10.50) and it was wonderful too. Stuffed dumplings are common throughout Central and Eastern Europe and most of the ex-Soviet states.

For those who like to have a variety of flavours, go for the multicoloured pelmeni combo platter ($17) which comes in 10 dumplings with flavours such as salmon, beef, lamb, pork and chicken. This combo “Try Them All” reminds me of the colourful xiaolongbao at Paradise Dynasty which comes in a bamboo basket. The combo is useful for those who cannot decide on what flavour to eat.

Another dish worth trying is the Chebureki ($10), which is the deep fried puff, filled with cheese. It reminded me of the delicious burek that I had while travelling in Bosnia. It is pretty much the same thing, like our curry puff except that it is baked and not fried. It is also comparable to the empanada in Argentina. Cheburek is made from unleavened dough filled with ground meat, onions and spices, fried in oil. It is a common street food in Russia, which serves as an appetizer or main dish, depending on the portions.

The jelly in this dish doesn’t seem appetising and I was not sure what to expect. However, this dish blew my mind. It is chicken jelly terrine ($8), which is like the chicken from your chicken rice prepared with the jelly. It is eaten with spicy mustard sauce and rye bread. Having tried blood pudding in UK and not liking the taste, I was adverse to this dish at first. But upon trying it I could not stop scooping up the wobbly jelly and tasty chicken. Russian Holodets is a cold meat jelly, traditionally made in Russia for the holiday table, traditionally made with pig feet, chicken feet or cow feet.

Last but not least, this is the Salmon cheese crepe ($10). Russians eat savoury crepe like the French, but they call it “blini”. The two pieces may seem little but it was actually filling for me. They had lots of smoked salmon slices inside and the crepes had sour cream by the side.

We were too full for desserts, so we stopped here. Overall, it was a wonderful dining experience at Fusion Dumplings and I was momentarily transported back to Russia. Of course staples like pelmeni and blini would not cost as much as in Singapore, but here we are paying for the ambience. There was a queue outside the restaurant during Saturday lunchtime due to the limited number of seats, We got the high table at the bar which allowed us to admire the various vodka bottles on display. Paka Paka (goodbye)!